A twice-weekly syndicated newspaper column on California public affairs.

Monday, January 30, 2017

UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR STATE’S ANTI-SMOG EFFORTS

CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017, OR THEREAFTER

BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR STATE’S
ANTI-SMOG EFFORTS”

Cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease are down about three percent over the last 40 years in California, even
as state population is up by well over one-third, better than 15 million, and
far more smog-belching vehicles than ever clog the roads. This is a major public health achievement, and the
single biggest reason behind it is the 45-year-old federal Clean Air Act and
its provisions for California waivers.

Despite this and other clear-cut
successes, the California waivers vital to this state’s long-running battle
against smog may soon be threatened. Those waivers let California set
automotive and industrial emissions standards stricter than those in other
parts of America, justified by substandard air quality in places like the Los
Angeles basin and Bakersfield.

While there is some disbelief in high quarters over climate change
and the effects of man-made greenhouse gases, no one doubts what smog can do to
human lungs. On any warm day in places like the San Joaquin, San Fernando and
Santa Clara valleys, it’s hard to miss the brown taint smog often gives the
air.

But the number of smog alerts has
dropped steadily for decades all over California, largely because of the
waivers. Rules they made possible are behind generations of smog control devices,
industrial smokestack controls and catalytic converters, plus hybrid, electric
and now hydrogen powered cars.

So effective are the California rules
that more than a dozen other states passed laws requiring them to adopt for
themselves any new California standards within a few years of their taking
effect here.

These advances, plus new zero
emissions vehicles and other improvements now in the works, were at first
pronounced economic impossibilities by a united front of automakers. Yet,
they’ve found ways to make these things both stylish and profitable. Without
the California waiver capability written into the Clean Air Act before
then-President Richard Nixon signed it in the early 1970s, none of this could
be.

All this is now threatened by the words
and record of President Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection
Agency.

In his confirmation hearing before a
Senate committee, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt refused to commit even
to keep in place the current versions of California waivers.

Over the last four decades, the EPA
granted this state more than 50 such waivers. Historically, these have been
harder for the state to get under Republican presidents than under Democrats.

For example, a requirement that large
carmakers produce hydrogen cars like the Toyota Mirai and other advanced autos
now in the works did not occur while George W. Bush was president, even though
state officials in 2005 began applying for a greenhouse gas-fighting waiver to
authorize it. Within less than a month after Barack Obama took office in 2009,
the waiver process was underway, eventually winning approval that July.

Pruitt, often accused of favoring oil
companies and other polluters in his home state, said he plans to review all
California’s waivers and might even try to take away powers granted in the
past. Never mind that it’s a little late to disinvent the Toyota Prius, the
Tesla Models X and S and other hybrid and electric cars.

It would be one thing for Pruitt to
refuse new California waivers despite their many successes. There’s precedent
for that. But Pruitt would be treading on new legal ground if he tries to
cancel existing waivers.

This possibility is one reason
California legislators retained the law firm of former U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder to help fight off potential Trump administration attempts to nix
current state programs. New state Attorney General Xavier Becerra also vows
resistance. No one knows where all this might lead under an administration
otherwise committed to allowing states plenty of leeway to manage their own
destinies on things like voting rights and water quality.

“When we hear you say ‘review,’”
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts told Pruitt during his hearing, “I
hear ‘undo the rights of the states.’”

It sets up an uncertain future for one
of the most positive, successful of state efforts, one that’s been backed by
all California governors going back to Ronald Reagan in the late 1960s.

-30-

Email
Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough,
The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch
It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias
columns, visit www.californiafocus.net

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About Me

Thomas Elias writes the syndicated California Focus column, appearing twice weekly in 88 newspapers around California, with circulation over 2.2 million.
He has won numerous awards from organizations like the National Headliners Club, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Los Angeles Press Club, and the California Taxpayers Association. He has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize in distinguished commentary.
Elias is the author of two books, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government's Campaign to Squelch It" (now in its third edition; also published in Japanese and recently optioned for a television movie) and "The Simpson Trial in Black and White," co-authored with the late Dennis Schatzman.